What is the working principle of semiconductor laser?

Answer 1

The principle of semiconductor laser is very different from CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers. It is based on "Recombination Radiation"

The semiconductor materials have valence band V and conduction band C, the energy level of conduction band is Eg (Eg>0) higher than that of valence band. To make things simple, we start our analysis supposing the temperature to be 0 K. It can be proved that the conclusions we draw under 0 K applies to normal temperatures.

Under this assumption for nondegenerate semiconductor, initially the conduction band is completely empty and the valence band is completely filled. Now we excite some electrons from valence band to conduction band, after about 1 ps, electrons in the conduction band drop to the lowest unoccupied levels of this band, we name the upper boundary of the electron energy levels in the conduction band the quasi-Fermi level Efc. Meanwhile holes appear in the valence band and electrons near the top of the valence band drop to the lowest energy levels of the unoccupied valence energy levels, leave on the top of the valence band an empty part. We call the new upper boundary energy level of the valence band quasi-Fermi level Efv. When electrons in the conduction band run into the valence band, they will combine with the holes, in the same time they emit photons. This is the recombination radiation. Our task is to make this recombination radiation to lase